Following writers with RSS, and helping readers follow you

A newsletter is, at heart, a promise that new writing will reach the reader without them having to come looking. Email is one way to keep that promise. RSS is another, older and quieter one, and it is the way readers follow writers here. It asks nothing of the reader except a feed reader, and nothing of the writer except to keep publishing.

This note explains what RSS is, where your feed lives on MossPaper, and how to make it easy for readers to use.

What a feed is

An RSS feed is a small file, published alongside a blog, that lists its recent posts: titles, links, dates and usually a summary or the full text. A feed reader is an app or website that checks many such files on a schedule and shows anything new in one list. The reader decides whom to follow; nobody needs their email address. For the longer history, Wikipedia's article on RSS is a good place to start.

For readers, the appeal is control. They can follow dozens of writers in one place, read in their own order, and stop following someone with a single click, without unsubscribe links or accounts. For writers, a feed means your work keeps reaching people who chose to follow it, whether or not they remember to visit.

Where your feed lives

Every writer's blog on MossPaper has its own feed at /your-handle/feed.xml. If your blog is at /june-notes/, your feed is at /june-notes/feed.xml. You do not need to switch anything on; it updates as soon as you publish. There is also a feed for the whole site at /feed.xml, for readers who want to see everything new across MossPaper.

Reading on the site is free and needs no account, and following by feed is the same: a reader only needs your feed address and a reader app. That is worth saying in your own words wherever you introduce yourself. The features page lists the feeds along with everything else a blog includes.

Help readers who have never used a feed reader

Many people have heard of RSS without ever using it. If you want readers to follow you this way, give them a short, friendly explanation rather than assuming they know. Something like this, adapted to your voice, fits at the end of a welcome post:

To get new issues as they come out, copy this address into a feed reader: /june-notes/feed.xml on this site. A feed reader is a free app that collects new posts from writers you choose, in one list, with no account needed here.

Give the full address, including the site's domain, when you share it elsewhere. Some feed readers can find a feed from a blog's address alone, but the direct feed address is the surest route.

A few other places worth mentioning your feed:

• Your welcome or "start here" post. See writing a welcome post for new readers.
• The close of an issue, now and then, not every time.
• Your own website, if you have one, next to a link to your blog here.

Write so the feed reads well

In a feed reader your issue is shown in a plain, uniform style, stripped of the site's layout. A few habits help it read well there:

• Clear titles. A feed is a list of titles first. Name the subject in the first few words; our note on writing a title that works like a subject line goes into this.
• Real headings. Use proper headings for sections rather than bold lines. They survive the trip into feed readers and keep long issues navigable.
• Descriptive links. "Read the full recipe" is clearer than "click here" in any context, and especially when the surrounding page is gone.
• Meaningful images. If an image matters to the story, say what it shows in the text too. Some readers have images turned off.

Publishing on a steady rhythm helps feed readers too. A feed that updates on a familiar day is easy to look forward to, and a reader who has not heard from you for months may wonder whether the feed still works. If you take a break, a one-paragraph post saying so, and when you expect to be back, reaches everyone who follows you in the same place your issues do.

Think before you edit or delete

Feed readers usually remember the posts they have already seen. If you fix a typo, most readers will simply see the corrected version next time they open the post. If you change the title or substantially rewrite an issue after publishing, some feed readers may show it as a new item, or keep showing the old version. Neither is a disaster, but it is a reason to finish the title and the lead before publishing rather than after.

If something in a published issue was wrong, a short note in the post saying what you changed is kinder than a silent edit. Readers who saw the first version will know what is different.

Follow other writers too

The best way to understand how your feed is read is to use a feed reader yourself. Follow a handful of writers you like, here and elsewhere, and notice which titles make you open an issue and which make you scroll past. Notice which issues you finish. It is the most practical lesson in newsletter writing there is, and it costs nothing.

If something about feeds on the site is not working as you expect, the help page is the place to start.